Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education
- from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!

What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past one hundred years ....

And yet, even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past one hundred years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks - we know that too many barriers still remain.

We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else - a gap that's widening here in New York City, as detailed in a report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson.

We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else.

We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail.

And we know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force.

These are some of the barriers of our time. They're very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They're very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers; when Charles Hamilton Houston and a group of young Howard lawyers were dismantling segregation.

But what is required to overcome today's barriers is the same as was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency. The same sense of sacrifice. The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best.

The question, then, is where do we direct our efforts? What steps do we take to overcome these barriers? How do we move forward in the next one hundred years?

The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States. I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there's probably never been less discrimination in America than there is today.

But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.

On the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination must not stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.

Barack Obama is the President of the United States. And that's what makes his NAACP address so lousy. Any significant black leader today is going to have to make that speech. He or she is going have to reach back to all the accomplishments dating to the early 20th century, when a black man could be lynched - in the north or the south - for looking at a white women.

Sure, Obama's right to speak truth to the history. But it's so old. And not only that: It's so, well, lame. It's been 45 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If a black person can't make it in America today, they aren't going make it. What barriers are keeping folks down? What impediments? It's not all those "indicators" touted by the President. The rate of imprisonment; the proportion of HIV/AIDS; the number of those uninsured ... You get the picture. The President's talking statistics, not causation. But that's his play - lay it on thick with the black folks, but then go easy on whites with shameless racial bargaining. Can't alienate the largest chunk of the voting electorate. Hit the right notes, and you'll soothe white guilt without inflaming recriminations on the other side.

Obama's skilled at the talk. He's done the community action thing and he worked as a racial grievance law professor who taught post-structural theories of critical race analysis. If you've read that stuff it's all institutions and no personal responsibility. Obama's old pal, education professor William Ayers, has a recent book titled Race Course Against White Supremacy. That's the standard pedagogy among the left's "Teachers College" elite. That's the indoctrination. There are points to be scored by victimology, and there's an industry to keep alive by constantly attacking whites as bigots.

But the President's going too easy on his brothers and sisters, frankly. Obama would have done himself a favor by reprising Bill Cosby's address to the NAACP in 2004, on the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision. Sure, he paid due deference to some of Cosby's themes, but the President's inauthentic on personal responsibility. He's too caught up in the "blood of martyrs" frame of the Jackson/Sharpton race hustlers. You can't break out of poverty and social isolation when the top black representatives are trying to keep you down on the plantation. Jim Crow is long gone, and we only see him when the media conjures up some "right-wing extremist" who's really a Democrat in the news. James von Brunn was a registered Democrat from Maryland. John Duesler, the Philly swim club manager, is a Democrat and Barack Obama blood-donor activist(O-Positive!). Just yesterday, we saw Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer upbraided by Harry Alford of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. By rattling off some NAACP resolution and an endorsement for "cap and tax" from 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Senator Boxer sought to bring Alford down low as just one more po' negro. "What's 'a matter wit' you, boy ... I got me some fren's who say we be stylin' wid' de climate-hoax taxpayer ripoff! Get with the program, mofo!"

In his speech yesterday, President Obama spoke of the family of Emmett Till: "If Emmet Till's uncle Mose Wright could summon the courage to testify against the men who killed his nephew, I know we can be better fathers and brothers, mothers and sisters in our own families." Gee, that's great Mr. President. Hark back for more blood of martyrs, will you? But hey, if someone wants to use Emmett Till for an example, they'd be better off asking: Why are four blacks in Chicago charged with desecrating Emmett Till's grave? And man, who are you going to blame?!! The President should have layed down some names in shame. C'mon, four black grave robbers alleged to have exhumed hundreds of bodies for cash at a historic black cemetery? I seriously doubt that's the kind of "race-lifting" W.E.B DuBois had in mind!

But as long as blacks today live for the past, longingly comforted in knowing that, yes, they were once horribly mistreated as subhumans, then they'll never fully have to take responsibility for lifting themselves up.

Check out Ta-Nehisi Coates for more on that. He takes issue with the New York Times headline, which quotes the President saying, "we have no excuses for failure." Well, we don't, as I've pointed out here at length. But Ta-Nehisi's perturbed:

Like I said earlier this week - so much of this isn't about Obama himself, but a deep-seated desire to get out from under history. Expiation on the cheap. White guilt isn't anyone's friend. Least of all black people's.

Au contraire, mon frère! We're getting plenty of history. Now if we could just get the culture right ... now that'd be some progress!

There are many good black men out there, Donald. Why, oh why, did we have to get this one?

Obama isn't skilled at speaking as much as he is skilled at reading a teleprompter. Without it he stammers a lot. I still don't refer to him as President because he hasn't ever shown a real birth certificate. A certificate created with HTML doesn't count worth beans. But aside from that, his agenda is so blatantly obvious that I'll never understand why every American isn't outraged, including Blacks.

Obama learned to be a race baiter as an affirmitive action baby in college and beyond. I KNOW first-hand about his youth, as we attended the same school in Hawaii. And, I know the "racial diversity" and "racism" he faced. There, he was judged as a person for his actions (drugie) - but, college and beyond taught him how to play the victim card to succeed. I'd say he's learned the lesson well.

Also - if this country is SO racist and keeping people down, why did a WHITE America elect Obama to be President?

The man has no ethics. But, if you've been paying attention, you'd know that!

Sorry to drop in and advertise my blog here, but I have a post regarding an urgent call for aid from one of our wounded heroes. Please visit my blog and lend whatever aid you can! Again, please pardon the intrusion.

Obama will manage to set race relations in America back three decades before he is through.

As a lily-white libertarian, I long ago stopped paying any attention to this discrimination nonsense, and I suspect the majority of white Americans have, as well.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the year I was born, and only then because republicans voted for it.

Had it been left to the democrats, it would have failed.

I have never done anything to any person because of their skin color, and am getting pretty damn tired of being treated as though I have.

Some day, black Americans are going to finally awaken to what liberal America has really done to them over the years. I suspect that epiphany will follow shortly behind illegal aliens getting the "right" to vote in this country, at which point I expect blacks to be joining gays and other minorities under the democrat bus.

PARASITIC SPECIES INFESTATION alien robot telescope spaceship: audiobook getting things done (GTD is the tag), the first few tracks of PALE BLUE DOT are good, as we transition to a knowledge based global society

as computing power increases exponentially and ubiquitous web enabled sensors allow for immersion in context relevant buddhist or ethics perspective, national broadband plan...

dharmaprinting.com augmented reality sociology subject index and table of contents Chinese military intelligence genius clones life energy word abacus sustainability transmission measurement context mapping twitter.com/globalcide is me Google for EXTINCTCULTURE please let me know what you think about this topic computer.org/pervasive (FOLDING@HOME and BIONIC software's, engineering 450 million new species to make deserts habitable or telepathic ecosystem maintenance) autodesk inventor prototyping software for genetics use the audio book list on audibles.com to build course of life coaching training young orphan people to be CIA certified ethical hackers download free at nowtorrents.com {free antivirus/malware + reviews @ download.com} because if the current post world war 2 education system was meant to produce factory workers (not critical thinking curriculum video from best teacher nationally then teachers answer questions and do research while the kids watch, pause for Q+A, the videos podshifter software for iTunesU ) how much worse is this continuation of using the bible koran instead of critical mass ecosystem dynamics physics logistics?

MIT OCW designing your life. The art of war flashcard deck, wikipedia article audio book the 48 laws of power... RAW stem cells movies: Eagle EYE, Minority Report, (gps and audio recording + all video survelance to DVR on web for all probation and parole ankle monitors, put more people on them and use software to monitor them, the probation or parolee pays for the ankle monitor and then gives it back to the probation office then the next probation pays for it again, thus buying another one) broadcom is makeing new version of these chips every two months now GPS + Bluetooth + WiFi + FM combo chip)audio + video security DVR in juvinile prisons with audiobooks streaming leave the headphones you buy behind for the next inmate

web 2.0 directories: ziipa.com and go2web20.net USE THE TAGS cloud, also lifehacker.com and lifehack.org SHARE 99ebooks.blogspot.com via: care2.com/click2donate or thehungersite.com and gizmodo.com/tag/ecomodo click every tab every day with iMacro, smarterfox, delicious, colorful tabs, TOOMANYTABS, WebMynd extensions for the new firefox 3.5 browser.

youtube.com/homeproject

Block Posters Makes a Large Poster from Any Image, the rain in spain falls mostly on send this to every school and buddhist center in the world but translate the message to the national language first please.